


Bullseye From a Dart

by Cosmopolitician



Category: Venom (Comics), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Angst, Carnage - Freeform, Cute, Didn't Know They Were Dating, F/M, Fluff, Just Friends, M/M, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Slow Burn, cletus kasady - Freeform, eddie isnt the nonbinary character, future polyamorous relationship, jk, nonbinary OC, roxanne is hella gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-08-08 20:18:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16436093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cosmopolitician/pseuds/Cosmopolitician
Summary: Eddie got his interview with Cletus Kasady through Roxanne. The two of them begin to unravel the man before it's too late. He's planning something. But even Kasady can see theres something between Eddie and Roxy.I suck at summaries (this is summary #2 and ill probably write another) and this is my first fanfic in a hot minute, but feedback appreciated!





	1. Chapter 1

Despite the changes happening throughout San Francisco, Roxanne had discovered how to remain. She fought tooth and nail on a daily basis, but nobody was going to take her city away from her. The woman was known throughout most of the city. If you were a native and a decent human being, you knew who she was. On a weekly basis Roxanne found herself around the city. From the Richmond to the Mission to Ingleside to Chinatown. The woman knew the city like the back of her hand, at least she did until the changes became more drastic. Fires were being set in the Mission in apartments that were under rent control. Well, they were being called electrical mishaps, but when a landlord couldn’t buy an eviction they were determined to take it into their own hands.  
  
Since the Life Foundation’s presence had started to subside after the “unfortunate” death of Carlton Drake, Roxy started to change focus more on her city. There was no way in hell she could save the world… but she could save her neighbors. That was how she ended up outside the Mission Street precinct of the SFPD. A hunger strike was happening. Elders were on day eleven of eating. Blood was in the streets and the cops didn’t give a shit about it. If their most vulnerable were left to die, what did that say for the rest of them?  
  
The Frisco Five they’d been called. They had yet to have either of their two demands met. Meet the Mayor or the Chief of Police needed to be fired. Roxanne had been camping out for six days of the thirteen-day hunger strike, and today was her seventh day participating. She had a bright blue sign that read PEOPLE OVER PROFITS and her blue mess of hair was plastered across her face and the back of her neck. It was San Francisco hot (which compared to the rest of the country was a comfortable spring or fall temperature) but at night it was dropping down below the thirties, leaving everyone camping out to go from sweating to freezing for days on end.  
  
News vans and reporters had come and gone in the beginning, but after the first week they had stopped by with less frequency. The cops who were coming in and out of work had started bringing coffee and food to taunt them. What would a doughnut do on day twelve that it wouldn’t have done on day six? The Frisco Five didn’t give in. It was admirable, but watching elders in her community waste away? On day thirteen, Roxanne called an ambulance for the eldest of them. An eighty-one-year-old woman who had passed out and couldn’t be woken up.  
  
“She has a gluten allergy and hasn’t eaten in thirteen days. Put me down as a contact if you can… and do you guys have any water in there?”  
  
“Miss, we can’t just give away water. Have one of your people go get water.”  
  
“That doesn’t mean anything to the message… but if other first responders threw their hat in with us? Y’all could be even bigger heroes…” she said with a small grin forming on her face. Men were usually easy to talk into doing things.  
  
They looked between each other and shrugged. “We’ll see what we can do.”  
  
“Thank you both so much,” Roxy giggled, a small sound that made both men smirk. God… they were so easy.  
  
They drove away and Roxy’s expression faded back to a neutral ease. There was nobody to impress. This was about a message, and she was done talking to men for the day. At least that was her hope. As she started to walk back towards the protesters camped outside, she heard a voice from behind her.  
  
“Excuse me, miss?”  
  
It was familiar, but there were so many people who had come and gone. With a sigh, she turned around and was met with the inquisitive gaze of Eddie Brock. Of course, another reporter had come again. “Back again, Brock?”  
  
“I was in the neighborhood and saw the ambulance… Otherwise I would have come with a camera. Is she gonna be alright?”  
  
“Well, she’s an elderly woman who hasn’t eaten in two weeks. You tell me.”  
  
Eddie Brock thought a minute. He almost looked… concerned? What the hell did he care? He was just a reporter. Even if he did report on a lot of the things she agreed with. He was one of the few seemingly noble people in journalism anymore, but that didn’t mean anything. Everyone was corrupt somehow. And she wasn’t delusional enough to assume he was any different. Yet he still persisted. He nodded as if in response to a command or idea and sat down on the ground across from her. “Well… you tell me. What do you say to an interview, miss….?”  
  
“Roxanne Hyde.”  
  
“Miss Hyde.”  
  
“Just call me Roxanne.”  
  
“Fair enough… alright, Roxanne.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Venom's internal dialogue will be in italics!  
> Also I'll go back and write a summary later!

The ambulance had rushed passed him and he whipped his head after it. That was towards the Mission police. Did something happen to the hunger strikers?  
  
_Who cares? It is stupid to not eat when hungry._  
  
“Yeah, well, they’re more disciplined than you,” he said aloud, seemingly to himself as he took off after it. He was only a few blocks away. By the time he got to the station, one of the original five people was being loaded up into the ambulance. Thirteen days… it made sense. He looked between the ambulance and out across the gathering of people, all their signs. People over profits, fire the police chief, and more signs in Spanish that he couldn’t understand. “And they’re good people.” His words came as he watched a woman with bright blue hair talking to the paramedics. She looked concerned, more than most of the others who simply looked exhausted. She did too… How many days had she been on the strike?  
  
Her clothes were worn out. She probably owned them for years, but as he got closer he noticed that they didn’t seem to fit right anymore. They were too big now, even if just. Extra fabric where there didn’t used to be any. She was about his height, maybe just shy of six feet, and her face though dirty still looked hollower than he could imagine it might have before. Even before Venom, Eddie didn’t think he had the constitution to go on a hunger strike. Food is so good. He couldn’t even fast for blood tests.  
  
_She’s getting away. Since you’re so hungry we should eat her._  
  
“What did I say about good people?” he asked as he approached her. “Excuse me, miss?”  
  
She turned to him and rolled her eyes. What’d he do to her? He was used to having that reaction from people, but usually he remembered rubbing someone the wrong way… oh well. Perk of the job. He had a lot of acquaintances, but he had a lot of people who probably hoped Carlton Drake having him fired would be the end of him. He’d been one of them for a while.  
  
“Back again, Brock?”  
  
He held up his hands innocently. He could almost feel Venom rolling his eyes. “I was in the neighborhood and saw the ambulance… Otherwise I would have come with a camera. Is she gonna be alright?” he asked as he nodded his head towards the ambulance driving away.  
  
“Well, she’s an elderly woman who hasn’t eaten in two weeks. You tell me.”  
  
Fair point. Her hostility kind of made sense, when he thought about it now. Not eating for such a long period of time, and the constant badgering of other reporters. He couldn’t get them anything they wanted. Not an audience with the mayor. He couldn’t fire the police chief. And he certainly couldn’t offer to buy them food and de-legitimize everything they worked so hard for. There was only one thing he could do for them, if they wanted it.  
  
She sat down to rest, and he joined her on the ground immediately hoping it would both gain her trust and show he wasn’t an enemy. He crossed his legs like he was in school and hoped she would agree. His days off were best spent this way, still working now. “Well… you tell me. What do you say to an interview, miss….?”  
  
She looked him up and down with the critical eye. “Roxanne Hyde.”  
  
“Miss Hyde,” he amended.  
  
“Just call me Roxanne,” she replied with a shrug.  
  
“Fair enough… alright, Roxanne.” He cleared his throat and took out a small notepad he kept on him now. When he raised his eyes again his gaze faltered and landed on her arms, both covered extensively in tattoos. “Very nice. Yours look way better than mine,” he said, smiling to himself and then up at her. He hadn’t gotten any new ink since moving to San Francisco. Maybe he ought to look into that.  
  
_Needles, really?_  
  
“Yes… so Roxanne, why has the strike continued for almost two weeks now?”  
  
She opened her mouth and quickly closed it as if she realized she should be keeping her words careful. This was going to be a real interview if he could help it. He watched her carefully as she glanced at the ground, and then up at the sky. He knew the answer to the question already. This shouldn’t be as complicated as it was. “If they won’t fire the police, they should at least fire the one in charge of them. Police Chief Williamson needs to go, and we have yet to meet or even hear from the mayor, even as we’re dying.”  
  
“You mentioned a ‘we’, Roxanne. Who is the ‘we’ that is dying? Are you all being killed or simply just dying?” he asked as he pulled a knee to his chest. Becoming smaller was more comfortable lately. Venom was most insistent on taking up space and being powerful. They were essentially unstoppable… He was essentially unstoppable.  
  
_No. We._  
  
Alright, fine. **They** were unstoppable.  
  
“We are the real San Francisco,” was Roxanne’s reply. Her voice started quiet and became sure of itself as she met his eyes. “People keep moving in and kicking out those who made the city so desirable. They want the culture but kick out the culture keepers. They want the good food but kick out the cooks. Want the art but not the artists. You moved here too, Eddie Brock, didn’t you? I see you around. You don’t just take what this place offers you put something back. Nobody puts things back anymore. We’re dying from neglect, or exile, or the cops, or starvation. We’re dying and the companies moving in are building on top of us.”  
  
His eyes went wide. She… she had a lot to say, and it sounded like nobody had ever given her the chance to say it before. Maybe that was an assumption. He’d been wrong before, and given the state she must be in because of the hunger strike, he was probably wrong again.  
  
_At least you can finally admit you are wrong._  
  
So much for Venom’s being quiet while he talked to this woman. “I did move here. As someone who is gentrifying this city, I want you to believe me when I say I’m doing my best to improve the city with my being here. And improve the communities I’m trying to become part of.” After Annie had called off their engagement, broke up with him, and kicked him out, the smaller or so-called more unsavory neighborhoods of San Francisco had become home to him. He knew the people on the corners in the Tenderloin and could say hi to the people riding the 14 down Mission by name. He really did want to do something good with his time on the west coast, even if he was looking to go back to New York at his first chance. Well, maybe not with Annie still out here.  
  
“I do believe you, Mr. Brock, but you’re one of the few… I’ve heard you call Google and Salesforce our tech overlords. I even think you might be down for a revolution, but the revolution keeps trying to happen and we’re being killed over it. Black and born people keep dying for it, and you’re here documenting it. What’s your fight and when is it coming?”  
  
Venom laughed in his head and he glanced uncomfortably at the sky. His fight came and would continue to come. He’d saved the entire goddamn planet! But he couldn’t just say that… no, he didn’t save the planet for the recognition. He did it because it’s right.  
  
_We have nothing to prove to her. What’s she ever done? Has she saved a planet?_  
  
“What is your fight, Roxanne?” he asked instead, leveling his gaze back at her. “You’re right to be skeptical, but what is your contribution to the revolution you’re so ready for?” Eddie didn’t believe everyone had to be save a planet at a time or fight bad guys or… the other options.  
  
_Bite off their heads._  
  
Or bite off their heads.  
  
She grinned a little. It was the most positive emotion (besides the passion he saw when she spoke about her city) he’d seen from her so far. That was hopeful. “I provide counseling, therapy, and psychiatric services for marginalized communities. I take patients of all genders and all colors and operate solely on a sliding scale. I take all insurances and accept those without. I believe in healing traumas and understanding them and their repercussions. And I believe the revolution cannot be run by people who are run ragged.”  
  
_Oh… good person?_  
  
Yep. She had more credentials to back her up than he expected… wow… he felt inadequate. Jesus. Wait, psychiatric help? Oh shit. She was a doctor. She could be making money at any hospital or private practice in the city, but she was out here on a hunger strike with the people. With her people. In her city. And she was giving back every day. No wonder she was so critical of him and the other invaders.  
  
_Told you you were a loser._  
  
“Er… so… Doctor Roxanne Hyde then?”  
  
“That is correct, Mr. Brock,” she replied with another smile. She was laughing at him. Between her and Venom both laughing at him Eddie threw his hands up. It was supposed to be two on one, with Venom on his side. Now he had two people calling him a loser. Well, Roxanne hadn’t called him a loser. Her laugh wasn’t malicious either. In fact, it was boisterous and beautiful, if he was being honest.  
  
Annie’s laugh had been more subdued. She was a professional woman who tended to be restrained whenever they were out together. Eddie didn’t care like she did, something she told him a lot once they were forced to move here… since he was forced to move here. His ex-fiancée told him he should care more. Or rather, care more about the right things and stop being a crusader for things that left him sacrificing others. It was selfish, apparently, to fight for something he believed to be righteous. And now that it’d been seven months since she’d called the whole thing off, he supposed she had a point. He’d betrayed her trust and selfishly used her to try to take Carlton Drake down. Go figure he didn’t need to do that after all. He’s dead now.  
  
_I’m sad we could only kill him once._  
  
“Is there anything else you’d like to tell me, mis---Doctor Hyde?” he asked, smiling at the use of the word doctor. It would really set a tone for his piece to know that he’d interviewed a doctor. When people picture a hunger strike or rioters or protesters, it was always a bunch of college kids or people who had nothing better to do. It seemed easy to demonize them (by the conservative media), but a doctor? He grinned and got to his feet before he extended a hand to help her up.  
  
She took it with both hands and got to her feet with unsteady legs. However, once she was up she seemed to be stable. Eddie stayed ready to catch her just in case. It’d been almost two weeks with no food… hopefully she was going to be okay. He still wanted to buy them all pizzas. “I know I have no stake in this hunger strike and I’m just a messenger into the world, but I think this should end if you want to keep fighting…”  
  
“Today is the last day, Brock. Don’t worry,” she replied as she brushed her hair out of her face. He was taken aback by her eyes. The most beautiful blue-grey he’d ever seen. There were myriads of shades he hadn’t seen before. It must have been her hair… Maybe that’s why she picked blue. Smart choice if so.  
  
_Your pulse quickened, Eddie._  
  
Great, now he was being teased again. They were going to have a talk about this later. What happened to “we”? At least it was “we” when it counted… Still a headache though. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a torn leather wallet. She pulled out a black business card with a bright blue typeface on it. He turned it over in his hands. “Dr. Roxanne Hyde. Queer Therapist  & Psychiatrist” on the front. The back had all her contact information including a website. He smiled a little at it. “Well, Dr. Hyde, I’ll contact you if I need anything else… and feel free to call me Eddie.”  
  
She chuckled and replied, “I told you just Roxanne. This isn’t Doctor Hyde at work… this is just Roxanne doing what she thinks is the right thing to do. No matter the risk. That’s all I believe people should do.”  
  
After she walked off back to her people, Eddie walked back towards Dolores Park and sighed. “So what was all that, huh? I was trying to do a good thing and I gotta deal with you talking over my thoughts and teaming up against me?” Of course, he was talking aloud though he was speaking to Venom. Talking to “himself” was a common practice for him now. It was almost like thinking out loud.  
  
_Aww don’t be so sensitive._  
  
“I am not sensitive! I was trying to do my job.”  
  
_You’re just mad I agreed with the doctor that you were a loser._  
  
“She didn’t think that I’m a loser.”  
  
_Oh… well, I did._  
  
“Well you’re a loser too.”  
  
_…I suppose you are right. Now, hungry._


	3. Chapter 3

Once a name like Eddie Brock got behind the hunger strike, the mayor caved and held a meeting with the elders. He’d done her a favor. Well, not her per se but nonetheless he went out of his way for her and hers when he didn’t have to. She yawned and rolled over, slamming her alarm into silence. Now that she was back working. She’d sent Brock an email from her professional account in thanks, but other than that she hadn’t talked to him. Yet he’d continued to report on it, and with the coverage it was providing she felt like she genuinely owed him one. How to pay him back? Whatever… she would deal with it when she was more awake. “Dr. Hyde here,” she said with a yawn. “How can I help you?”

“Please hold Ms. Hyde while I transfer you.”

“That’s Doctor Hyde. I didn’t get a PhD just to be called miss.” It wasn’t something she got uppity about too often, but she never had a pre-sunrise phone call before. By the time she heard a voice on the other end of the line, Roxy buried her face in her pillow and started falling asleep.

“Doctor Hyde?” came a quiet male voice, stern and exhausted much like her own. He was trying not to yawn too. “I’m the warden of San Quentin Prison, Stanley Chervinsky. I apologize for the hour of this call, but something has happened and we would like you to come to the prison immediately.”

Roxy sat up right and sent her sheets flying. “Excuse me?” It was a statement and not a question. “Uhm, sure, Mr. Chervinsky, I can be there within an hour.” She threw open her closet and sprinted towards her bathroom. “Can I ask who or what this is concerning that is so important?” Shower on, check, and clothes thrown onto the bathroom sink. “Is everything alright?”

“It’s Kasady, Doctor Hyde. We give prisoners access to the news sometimes, and he saw something about the Life Foundation and wants to talk to someone. Some journalist, but we don’t wanna give him any media attention. If you can get him to talk, we can figure out a plan to move forward… I’ll have the check for you when you get here. You get paid no matter what happens.”

Cletus Kasady… The woman was nodding before she remembered he couldn’t see her. She nodded still as silence filled both ends of the phone. This wasn’t her specialty. She specialized in traumas and healing. She was supposed to help her community with this… but this could help bring closure. How many people has he killed? He actually killed one of her friends of friends. Someone she knew. If she could keep her cool, stay professional, and not flinch? This could work… The qualifications were there. She had all the education needed.

“I’ll be there before six a.m. I’ll see him after he’s had breakfast. I’d like to see you beforehand if possible.”

“Of course. I’ll greet you at the door.”

“Thank you for the call, sir.”

She threw her phone onto her bed and jumped into the shower without any thought otherwise. Her entire morning routine was going to have to be thrown out the window, and did she do laundry yesterday? Oh god was she going to go into San Quentin and meet Cletus Kasady on laundry day? No, she threw her last clean business clothes on her sink. Okay… okay… She was going to listen to some angry punk in the car on the way up and she would be level by the time she got there. This wasn’t the time for angry punk on a hunger strike Roxanne Hyde. This was Doctor Hyde. Who woulda thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter y'all get Cletus.


	4. Chapter 4

“Doctor Hyde, we spoke on the phone.”

“Warden,” she replied, brushing her blue mess of hair behind her shoulders. She’d driven with the window down. “Thank you again for this opportunity, but I’m sure you know this isn’t what I usually do.”

She kept the brisk pace as she was escorted into the prison. It’d been smart of her to bring a small satchel as opposed to a backpack. When being searched she had to take everything off including her jewelry and was subjected to a pat down twice. Her notebooks were inspected along with her utensils. Her laptop she’d left in the car. This required a more personal touch, and she wanted to minimize the odds of any of her stuff being broken by rough guards.

Once she’d made it through security, she and Warden Chervinsky walked the guarded halls at a quicker pace than she expected. The Warden was a squat man who held resemblance to a particular Batman villain. He had jowls and a voice that lead her to believe he was tired all the time. He walked with perfect posture but all his steps seemed more like quick shuffling whereas she took confident strides. He was prattling on about the security and the dangers, but she wasn’t paying attention. Instead letting her gaze wander…

These were the same walls Charles Manson was housed in. There were so many people who should have been studied, interviewed. It was a dark place, but what she didn’t expect was how loud it was. She could hear the yelling of prisoners. It reminded her of high school. The same vague loudness whenever a rowdy group of people got together. She knew prison wasn’t fun. Hell, Roxy had been to jail once or twice. “I would like to see any files you have on Mr. Kasady,” she said, “All the information. I’ve found is from the trial and his history, but since he came in here there was a blackout.”

“As you can understand we kept his activities here private. He is a very high-profile prisoner, and given the other prisoners we have here, you can understand our need for discretion.” He stopped suddenly and opened a door on the left. Roxy tripped up and stumbled before spinning on her heels and turning into the office. There was a check on his desk that had yet to be filled in with the amount. But it had her name on it. He raised his eyes at her and grabbed a pen. “I hope we can continue to have some discretion, Doctor Hyde…” He stared at her, not blinking.

Roxy stood firm in front of his desk. Her head turned down at him. She wasn’t going to swerve now. She came too far. There was more at stake than her rent being paid for the month. There was more here than a simple interview. This was a chance to really meet the man behind the murders. To understand where he was coming from and what this was really about. If it was about anything at all. Roxy was all too acquainted with a personal void and knew what nothingness felt like when it called to you. There was a special siren’s song for people who were empty, or who were so full they were desperately trying to open themselves. “What exactly is my job here, Mr. Chervinsky?”

He smiled. Well, the corners of his mouth raised. There was no happiness there, and they both knew it. It did amuse him though. He shook his head and started writing the amount, telling her, “You are to interview Cletus Kasady. You are to determine if there is any new information he may be willing to share. And if he doesn’t want to talk to you, I am determined to find another discreet person who he will talk to. I will be a reference and recommend you when needed. I will keep your number, but do not test the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Ms. Hyde.”

“Are you assuming I’m going to tweet about this, sir?”

“I would never.”

“Then allow me to do my job, and we will be able to help each other… and it’s Doctor Hyde.”

They stared again and both nodded. He finished signing the check with a flourish and handed it over. “I believe everything should be in order, doctor?”

Roxanne took the check and nearly dropped it. There was a comma… When was the last time she had gotten paid with a comma? “Yes, sir,” she replied as she tucked it into one of the folders she brought with her. “Do you have any behavioral reports for me regarding Kasady?”

With a shake of his head he laughed. “Doctor Hyde,” he said as he gestured out towards the door. “He’s been in solitary for his own protection since he’s been here. There’s been no way for him to misbehave until this moment. If I may speak bluntly,” and she nodded, “then you are a guinea pig. You’re the first opportunity for disaster.”

A shiver ran down her spine as they walked through the prison again. There it was. The real reason for the comma. She was being escorted through a maze of hallways. Despite doing her best to pay attention to where she was going and not the eyes she could feel on her, Roxy felt herself getting lost and swallowed up within the institution. “Good thing I’m from the City then. I’m familiar with disaster. “

At the end of the hallway was a cage where she saw a silhouette with red hair. There was a security guard stationed in the doorway and the warden bid her a good rest of her day and said something about going home. _Alright, Roxy… No more training wheels,_ she thought as she stepped into the light. A brief nod at the guard as introduction and she took a seat in front of Kasady.

He was staring at the floor and was nodding as if someone had said something to him. He gave a little hum, and Roxy wrote that down. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be getting, but she wanted to get it. Her phone was hidden in her bag on the floor and was recording the entire thing, including her conversation she’d had with the warden. Roxy was no fool. There was going to be evidence, even if it was just for herself. “Mr. Kasady, hi,” she started with a smile that was almost genuine. This was where she had to dig deep and remember empathy is the light in the face of the abyss. “My name is Roxanne Hyde. I understand you wanted to talk to someone?”

Kasady raised his eyes from the floor to meet her. He had something similar to a smile on his face, or maybe it was a smirk? His eyes were bright but there was something missing in them that put her off. “Hyde, huh?” he mused, scooting a little closer to her but not really moving. He’d been moved into that cage as he was chained to the floor. “Like Jekyll n Hyde?” He leaned in, interested.

Roxanne smirked herself and nodded. She wrote that down too. “Exactly… but this time Hyde is the doctor. Jekyll is pretty much useless.”

He laughed and looked at the guard. “This one is good. Y’all did a good job with her. But Ms. Hyde, Jekyll ain’t never been useless. Two halves of a whole. Jekyll understood things he never could because he had Hyde… Nothin’ wrong with unlocking a door that was meant to be opened.”

This sense of duality piqued his interest. Duality was something she understood well. This wasn’t the first time someone reached the connection with her name, but beyond that? The mental illnesses she danced with gave her the brightest sunrise and the darkest sunset. “What’s behind the door you opened then, Mr. Kasady?” she asked, leaning forward in her seat. “Based on your life it looks like the door was never really closed…”

“No, I just opened it all the way. There ain’t nothin’ to be done except what you want to do. And that’s where most people get it wrong. That’s where Jekyll gets it wrong. Hyde does as he pleases when Dr. Jekyll is restrained by these-these laws. These restrictions he’s given himself because the world thinks he does.”

“So you believe that laws are… bullshit?”

He threw his head back and laughed, clapping his hands to himself. “Laws are just words,” he nodded. “Why not shake things up for the people who are determined to live by them? You all go out there and live by the rules that some rich guy set for you three hundred years ago or three hours ago and you just accept it as fact. It isn’t! Why can’t I have a little fun while y’all are wasting your chance?”  
“Your fun is killing people, Mr. Kasa---”

“Cletus.”

“…Cletus. Who gives you the right to rob people of their fun because you think their fun is wrong?”

He nodded a couple times and grinned. In the silence that fell after her question she realized how close she was to losing her edge. This wasn’t to bond with him anymore. This wasn’t to lower guard. This was her losing control. “What’s wrong with a little carnage, Hyde?” he asked with a grin. He stood up and walked as far as he could towards the end of the cage.

The guard marched towards him yelling, “Back up, Kasady!”

Kasady put his hands on the bars and gripped them. His fingers were bloodied and dirty. She noticed his blood matched his hair. “Warn the world, Doctor Hyde… Because laws can’t save everyone forever. Something is coming, and safety is as fake as your rules.” He slammed his hands on the bars making her jump. The guard immediately tazed him and sent him to his knees on the ground. In her fear, Roxanne noticed the move looked stiff and rehearsed.

“Doctor, I think you need to leave,” the guard told her as another guard sprinted in.

“I think I know how to get you that microphone you wanted, Cletus,” Roxanne said as she got to her feet. “Tell the warden we’ll be in touch.” She walked away and followed the other guard outside of the prison. The walk back to her car was filled with silence. All of his words echoing in her head. This was more than she expected to get from him. This roundabout talk of Jekyll and Hyde and duality and order and chaos. Why did this come up now? And something from the Life Foundation triggered this? Fuck… she should have asked about that. But she did know someone who could…

When she closed the door to her car and whipped out her phone. She didn’t have a clue what she was going to do with all of this. This wasn’t a consistent client with growth. This had to be written up. This was for her eyes only, but there was another pair of eyes who needed to see it. She opened Eddie’s contact and sent him the simple text: **You working today? I have something for you.**

The response was immediate and it made her smile. When & where?

**I need breakfast. Pick a café or a diner, and I’ll meet you at nine.**

All she got back was an address and a thumb’s up emoji.


	5. Chapter 5

They met at a small café in the sunset where Roxy used to be able to order a whole chicken if she wanted chicken and waffles. They took it off the menu, but Roxy went in there so much where if she paid for the chicken she could still get it. She made it across the bridge a lot more composed than she expected considering the earlier threats (albeit not direct threats, which was nice) she’d witnessed earlier. Something about the dried blood coating his cracked fingers… his nails were so dirty it almost didn’t look like blood. It made her want to get a manicure just thinking about it. Hell, she just might.

She walked into the café looking more dressed down than earlier. She left the black blouse but changed out of her dress pants into a familiar pair of torn jeans. Her shoes were still sneakers though. They just looked nice because she only wore them when she had business. Yeah, business sneakers. They were all black, so at least it was a unit. “Hey, Roxy,” said an older Asian man with a toothy grin from behind the counter. “How are you?”

“Same old, David. Same old,” she replied with a grin.

“Haven’t seen you in a while except on TV.”

“I had work to do. Don’t worry, I’m good.”

“Just take care… some white boy is here looking for you. Seen him a couple times.”

“Thanks. Can I give you a twenty and get the whole deal?” she asked. She put the twenty on the counter and David took it. He gave an affirmative and said he’d bring her the coffee, so she didn’t have to interrupt herself. She looked more dressed up in there than she ever had before, but that wasn’t saying much at this point. Eddie Brock wasn’t hard to spot. He was one of the larger people in the building, and he’d picked a corner where they could both watch everything happening around them. “Hey, thanks for coming, Brock.”

He jumped, startled by the new presence. “Sorry I was uh... zoning out,” he recovered as he ran a hand through his hair. “I was surprised to get your text, I’ll be honest. I didn’t think I’d hear from you again after we wrapped everything up with the impromptu interview.”

Roxanne put her hair up in a ponytail while he talked. It was either that or the nervous habit of constantly stroking her mohawk, but she had only just redyed it – the faded sky blue replaced by an electric blue - and didn’t want to mess with it. She hadn’t been able to relax all day. Being in the presence of someone familiar would hopefully start to put her at ease, even if she wasn’t friends with him. They could be friends eventually, maybe. She wasn’t sure they wanted to be though. “I didn’t think so either,” she admitted with a small smile. “But I woke up before sunrise and got a phone call, and I think you owe me one, Mr. Brock.”

There was a grin on her face that made him roll his eyes with a smile of his own. It didn’t seem like it was at her, but who was she to know… “You gonna leave me in suspense here?” he asked, arm up. “I don’t have to wake up until noon these days, and it’s not even nine yet. This better be good. I need beauty sleep you know.”

“Then you need to sleep more.” She laughed despite herself and the seriousness of the situation. Now that the power dynamic was shifted, and she wasn’t near death from starvation, Roxy was more at ease. “I got a call from Warden Chervinsky of San Quentin and they wanted me to talk to Cletus Kasady. Said he wanted to talk to someone.” She started pulling out her notepad and the pen, and then her phone. “Here’s all the notes I took, and I recorded the entire thing. And he still wants to talk to someone…” Roxy slid the notes across the table and sent him the audio file of the recording.

“I’m taking a big risk in sharing these with you,” she told him on a more serious note. “I told you I believed you when you said you were down. And your traction helped with the hunger strike and the mayor. We got the police commissioner and the chief fired. I owe you for that much.” This was no crusade about the fate of their fellow man. It wasn’t even a piece about redemption. It was about a man who did a lot of wrong, and they could possibly get something new that nobody else found. Scientific curiosity and a drive to learn more.

His eyes scanned the pages, flipping through all of them with a vigor. “How come you got this?” he asked, snapping up to her. Then he glanced around and sighed. “You’re right,” was the quiet reply. Who was he talking to with that one? “Sorry, that wasn’t right. I meant why you and not someone in their network… they have contacts. There’s red tape in place for something like this.” He checked his phone and saw what she assumed was the audio file before he looked up at her again.

“I’ll let that one go,” she said with a smirk. “But I’m with you… I don’t know why me. But it started because Cletus Kasady saw something on the news with the Life Foundation. Whatever this is now we’re in it together, Eddie. You took down the Life Foundation, and I made first contact with Kasady. I’m hoping that will be enough to get him to talk to us.” She sighed and leaned her head back when a plate was set in front of her. Chicken and waffles made with an entire chicken. “Thank you so much, David,” she said. Her eyes weren’t open. Roxy was exhausted. She slept too little and had done too much that day. And she had band practice later… fuck she was too tired. “Feel free to eat that with me.”

When she opened her eyes, everything was still exactly as it was but, Eddie was ignoring the food and the interview and the files. Why was he staring at her like that? Like he was searching for something… What did he want that she didn’t already give him? “Are you alright, Roxanne?” he asked quietly, leaning forward and ignoring the chicken. “You look exhausted.”

“And you look like shit,” she chuckled as she sat up. It was a defense mechanism, but she definitely didn’t look her best. Roxanne planned on getting a nap or three in later before practice. “I’m alright, Eddie. Just a long day so far. I’m still weak from the last time you saw me. Starvation does that to a person, y’know.” She grabbed a piece and started eating. She felt little shame in eating anymore, and even less so now that she’d been through a hunger strike. It was a long road to get there. There were plenty of battles she kept close to the chest, and she preferred it that way. “Seriously have some… I’m not dying anymore… or yet. I got better shit to do than that right now.” Even if the dark angels (she didn’t call them demons anymore) told her otherwise.

Almost thirty years Roxanne hated being alive, hated even existing… except when mania kicked in. Then everything was wonderful. Sometimes no control was a crushing weight and other times it was the most freeing hurricane. The philosophies she lived by came at a great cost when it came to developing and learning them. She wanted to make sure as few people as possible had to deal with it the way she did.

He watched her for a little bit before he grabbed some of the food himself. “You’re strange, you know that?” he said between eating. “I don’t know if I’ve ever met a person like you.”

“It’s almost like there’s all kinds of people in the world,” she quipped.

“Got me there, but I’ve met a lot of them. And I still think you’re real weird.”

“I’m weird and you’ve got secrets… and you’re weird. So that makes us the same.”

“What makes you think I’ve got secrets?”

“Because you’re not as boring as I thought you would be… and I have a couple degrees under my belt that let me pick up on ‘weird’… and I’m weird. So, I know secret when I see it.” She smiled and gave a light shrug as she kept eating. Roxy didn’t expect Eddie to tell her anything. Based on the way he moved she had some ideas. The way he would walk and talk like he was having a conversation but nobody would be there. He mumbled earlier. All signs pointed to some sort of schizophrenia or psychosis. It didn’t matter to her any if he had that. She had her own disorders. Hell, it wouldn’t even change the way she talked to or about him. If anything, it made her trust him a little more. There was a type of camaraderie that came from being abnormal. She loved it. Now.

Having been mentally ill all her life, Roxy was built from the ground up with these bricks that most people thought were misshaped. That was a house most people didn’t want to go into. Pretty on the outside and condemned on the inside. But she loved her house and herself. Roxy had turned into the person she always wanted to be and was doing her best to thrive, even if she put herself in danger by doing it. She was lost in thought eating when he interrupted her.

“Roxy, be my partner on this… let’s go in this together. Like really in it. Cletus Kasady is a once in a lifetime shot. Let’s shoot it. Especially if he thinks he’s going to get out soon. If we can do even the smallest thing to stop that? It could be the biggest push of our careers.”

“You don’t want me to be your partner, Eddie,” she replied quietly. “I don’t… I don’t know. Working by myself means that if I fuck up I only let myself down. Can’t take you down with me.”

“Roxanne Hyde, we can do this. Cletus Kasady talked to you. He wants to talk. If we be his voice, we get a voice of our own and we get more eyes. You do so much for the people around you. If we do this right, you’re set to keep practicing and charging as little as you want to in order to keep helping them.” He kept leaning in and meeting her eyes. He had pretty eyes. Not that it mattered. She wasn’t… she couldn’t. No, this was fine as it was. “What happens when restoration and destruction join forces?”

She sighed and looked out the window. That was a persuasive argument. She’d watched him a lot when he had his show, but it was different in person. If she didn’t keep on her shit all the time, Eddie could be let down. When was the last time she’d done anything in a group? It was a paper that she’d worked on for a couple years that was published in a journal; even then they were separate pieces all sewn together. “You shouldn’t stake anything on me, Eddie.”

“It’s just an opportunity, Roxanne. This isn’t life and death. Well, Cletus Kasady is, but our working to unlock him isn’t. C’mon… I know I’m not the easiest to be around, but I think you can handle it.”  
He wasn’t easy to be around? Beyond his occasional ego and his general inquisitive nature, Roxanne hadn’t found herself annoyed yet. Which… was a surprise, as Roxanne avoided spending time with cis men for that reason. She didn’t keep many close friends. They were all at a distance, even her exes. Most of them treated her as a burden for her illnesses or an inconvenience because of her convictions. She could count the people she talked to in a weekly basis on both hands, and honestly, she was more okay with that than most people, including her therapist, thought she should be.

“What do you want from Cletus Kasady, Eddie?” she asked as she sat back and crossed one leg over the other. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I don’t want him to kill any more people… and if I read your notes right, I think we should be worried.”

“…okay, Eddie. Let’s do this… but seriously please talk about something other than work. Ramble on so I can turn my brain off for the next few minutes.”

He perked right up. Maybe he didn’t get to talk to people too often outside of work. Or maybe he mostly talked to himself the way he’d been doing when she got there. He talked a lot about New York and why he liked it better than San Francisco for now. She would change his mind one way or another. New York was cool, but she loved her city. They sat and talked for almost an hour before Roxy started falling asleep where she sat. Eddie was going to visit Kasady within the next week, and Roxanne would do more research about him while she could.


	6. Chapter 6

Admittedly Roxanne made the perfect partner for their new endeavor. He’d been wanting to get back into written word as opposed to the video investigative journalism he’d been doing. When he told Annie he’d scored the interview of a lifetime he’d meant it… it just wasn’t his score. It was Roxy who’d given him this connection, a direct tie to the source. He still didn’t know why Roxanne got the call, or why she’d entrusted it to him, but he was grateful and determined to prove that it was a worthy gesture. He’d seen her once or twice since they decided to work together. Having a friend proved to be good for him. It was something Venom came to tease him about… and continued to tease him about even as they got closer to San Quentin.

_I’m still your greatest friend._

“Yeah, but what’s wrong with having another friend?”

_Friends hurt, Eddie._

“Usually it’s worth it there, bud. Remember when we got started?”

He heard a small grumble of agreement as he began the final stretch up the driveway… did prisons have driveways? The road that lead up to it at any rate. “Remember, this is a me thing. Not a we thing,” he said as he slowed down. He showed his ID to a guard at the gate. The guard radioed in and with a confirmation that he was allowed in, opened the way for Eddie to continue.

_Fine. But make it quick… I don’t like being bored._

“So sorry I’m boring to you!” he whispered as he too was searched. He didn’t have anything on him except his wallet, his keys, his bracelets, and a notepad. The guard saw all his accessories and raised his eyebrows at him. “What? I like them.”

“You’re aware you’re seeing a serial killer, right?” the guard asked. He picked up the bracelet and held it towards his own throat. “We don’t usually allow these in there.”

“Consider it a fashionable risk,” he shrugged as he wrapped his arm back up again. “Gotta die somehow, right?”

The guard barked a laugh and rolled his eyes but nonetheless allowed him in. It was his turn to walk this hallway. He had no idea how Roxanne handled it. There was yelling happening all around him, and every loud noise was making him jump. Usually he was more composed than this, but it wasn’t every day you met people on Death Row. Roxanne seemed so calm when she talked about meeting him… maybe it was because she was tired.

 _Or maybe she’s braver than you, the symbiote chimed in._  
  
Eddie huffed but stayed silent. He didn’t want to let the guard, or anyone else, hear him talking “to himself” in here. Nothing could ruin his credibility and make them doubt him. Thankfully the guard was rambling on and on about how he hated Kasady. “…if it were up to me, I’d’a killed this motherfucker by now. I dunno why we got the right to use the chamber if we won’t use it. Death penalty’s fine’n’all but we keep letting evil live.”

He made notes as the guard talked. “Well you know it’s actually cheaper to keep them alive and take care of them than it is to execute them all?” he asked as he was brought to the end of a hallway.

 _Or we could bite off their heads._  
  
That… could actually solve more problems than most of the other solutions allowed. He wouldn’t actually let the symbiote run wild and eat all these guys, all of whom were “bad” … but it was a nice little thought that he could. He chuckled and replied to the alien, “We could all use an elegant solution.”

The guard, however, snapped back, “Ain’t nothin’ elegant about this bastard…” before he turned on the light in the small dank room that Cletus Kasady was being held in for the interview. If one could call it a real interview.

Cletus Kasady was sitting in the cell, handcuffed with a pen in hand. How’d he get the pen? Did anyone else notice he had it? Eddie couldn’t wear jewelry but the serial killer could have a pen? That made sense… Beyond that, it was an unsettling sight. Kasady was sitting there cloaked in darkness with an uncanny smile on his face. His curly red hair falling into his eyes. There was fresh blood coating his fingers and he followed the man’s hands to the wall where “WELCOME EDDIE” was written in blood. He scribbled the image down. Some part of him couldn’t wait to tell Roxy how ridiculous this was.  
  
“Hi, Eddie,” Kasady called out with a small nod.

“Hey.” Not the most elegant… What else was he supposed to say?

“Do you mind if we forgo the whole creepy serial killer thing?” he asked with a grin growing.

Was that even possible? He was exactly a creepy serial killer. How was he supposed to just ignore that? But he chuckled and replied, “Sure, it’s good with me.”

“I mean, I can turn it on if you want… Talk about the destruction, a blood curdling scream… a look on her face when I---”

“I bet you can,” he interjected. It was literally his assignment to get details (he lied and said it was work for the FBI. If the prison or guards knew it was to try to give Cletus Kasady a platform to speak, they wouldn’t let him within ten miles of this place.) of the murders, but Eddie didn’t know if he could stomach it.

A silence settled between them. “Tough to see you in this light, Eddie… C’mon over.”

Turning and running wasn’t an option. God, he wished it was an option. He took a breath and stepped forward. “Alright…”

The prisoner grinned because he got his way. Eddie wanted to play nice, if only because it would play out better. “You’re so different from your little… friend,” he pointed out. “More skittish than she was.”

Eddie tensed up at the mention of Roxy. It made sense. The two of them were the only contact he’d had with the outside world in years. Roxy had already checked: Cletus Kasady had no visitors so far during his incarceration. “She’s got more experience de---talking to people than I do… She has to be nicer than I usually am.”

“Aww Eddie… You’re playin’ nice now though. Now, c’mon, I know you got somethin’ to ask me. Probably a few things. An interview of a lifetime, is what the guards around here been callin’ your shot. I don’t like to talk to just anybody, y’know. I know you didn’t come here to play patty cake.”

He glanced at the cameras in the corner of the room. There were four security cameras, one in each corner. Even though he’d spent most of his life in front of a camera interrogating people. This felt different. When he was in front of the camera, he was unstoppable. It had been where Eddie thrived, but this was tripping him up. All of his instincts told him to run. His muscles were sore from being clenched. He could even feel Venom restless inside of him. This was unnerving. Why did he want to talk now? And why was he probing?

Eddie remembered what Venom said earlier… Friends hurt. There was his in. Maybe it was a “we” thing after all. He smirked and stepped closer to him. Pen to paper. Notebook in hand. “Alright, Kasady. What happened to your friend Marine when you were in St. Estes? According to what records are left, she was the last person you spoke to before the place was burned to the ground. You wanna talk? Let’s talk.” So much for being skittish, even if he still felt uncomfortable. It was time to dive in and ignore everything telling him to get the fuck out of there.

The sudden topic change made Kasady sit up straight. His smirk vanished, jaw locked. Eddie kept the same friendly neutrality. Change in power what all Eddie was looking for. He’d never interviewed a psychopath before, but from all the movies he’d seen he knew that when coming into this situation Eddie was at a very extreme disadvantage. Kasady had been planning this interview and this moment for a very long time. It was his job to knock him down and throw him off his rhythm.

“She stood in my way, Eddie. Simple’s that. I needed to get out of there and she was stopping me,” he replied as he settled back into his seat. He was trying to regain footing.

“But what about the survivors who say you fancied her, Cletus? You asked her out. And she said no. And then you pushed her in front of a bus.”

“I think that’s a nicer fate than bein’ burned alive, don’t’chu think. You’d know a little something about that, wouldn’t you?”

“I’m just a reporter. I’m not a rocket scientist. Don’t know where you think I would know about fire like that. I go camping sometimes, lit off fireworks, but you… you’ve burned down a whole building. More than one, I’m certain, but we’re only talking about the one.” He didn’t let anyone off the hook when it came down to the wire. He didn’t let Carlton Drake off the hook. He didn’t let anyone in New York off the hook. If he managed to get run out of an entire state, who’s to say he can’t stand up to a mass murderer? “Why did you burn the orphanage down? You put yourself there, did you not? Could have gone home with your dad when you were a little boy, but you had him killed. You put yourself there, and you took yourself out. Where do you keep trying to go, Cletus? There’s no escaping you.”  
  
Cletus Kasady stood up and walked a few steps closer than Eddie found comfortable. “This is your job now, Eddie? You went from taking down politicians and alienating ‘superheroes’ to little ol’ me? Why would I want to escape me? I’m perfect. I am a neutral observer to the world. I see something that needs to be done, and I do it. I can do whatever I want. And there’s nothin’ to stop me. Anyone can do what I do, Eddie, but nobody has the fuckin’ balls!”

“And why do you get the right to do what you want? When the rest of us have laws and society to listen to? What makes you so special?”

Kasady leaned in and grinned again. He started laughing and clapping his hands. “Fuckin’ nothing, Eddie Brock. Y’all are just scared. Those laws? This society you all listen to? Doesn’t exist. It doesn’t matter. You’re all just too afraid to do what the fuck you want, but nothing is stopping you. It’s our animal right. See something. Feel an instinct. Follow it. Take it. Nothing and nobody can keep me here or make me do anythin’ I don’t want to.” As he talked, Kasady walked away from the bars and went back to his bench where he found the same relaxed position.

Prisoner or no, rambling or no, he was back in control of the conversation, despite him telling Eddie exactly the kind of information Roxanne told him to get. Roxanne was going to be so excited. That… made him happier than he expected. Eddie was probably just excited. “Then why are you here when you can just leave?” he asked. His hand was starting to cramp with the notes he was frantically taking. He was writing down his own thoughts in addition to what Kasady was saying. Of course, like Roxanne, Eddie had his phone in his pocket recording the entire conversation. It felt more organic to write everything down. And honestly, it made him feel more official and like a proper journalist again for the first time since Carlton Drake had him fired.

“If I left, I never would’a gotten to talk to you or that pretty little friend of yours. How is she, by the way? I didn’t scare her too bad… did I? She was nice to talk to… The Jekyll needs his Hyde, y’know…”  
  
He didn’t want to be there anymore. He didn’t like the way Kasady was talking about Roxanne, and he didn’t like that he felt out of the loop. Cletus Kasady knew something that Eddie Brock didn’t… like Kasady was telling him a joke but didn’t let him in on the punch line. Why was he so rattled? There was something to be said about this. With Venom at his side, he was quite literally almost invincible. Nothing could possibly kill him except another symbiote, but the two of them sent Riot up in flames and Drake killed the others. Why was he so scared?

“When I get out of here, and I will…” Kasady’s grin twisted as he stood up and walked to the edge of his cell as far as his chains would let him. “…there’s gonna be carnage.”

“Alright, talk’s over!” The guard yelled as Cletus grabbed the bars. He started pulling on them as if they would go anywhere. Eddie’s mind must be playing tricks on him because he could have sworn the bars wiggled some… “Let’s go, Brock. You’re done.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking every Thursday for posting, so I hope that works for y'all. <3  
> God, these chapters always look so long in Word and so small on here.
> 
> And I may or may not have a few future chapters that need some fluffy things, if there's anything y'all wanna see.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's late! The holiday was hard on me. This is gonna be a little shorter, but chapter 8 is gonna be extra long to make up for it.

Ever since the interview with Cletus Kasady, Eddie felt rattled. He’d had trouble sleeping and even Venom was getting fed up with his restlessness. After trying to sleep for the most recent time that night, Eddie sat up and sighed. “Jesus, can’t you just punch me in the face and put me out of my misery?” he asked aloud.

Venom, who was materialized already and next to him in bed, shook his head. _“You should stop being worried about her,”_ he said as he sat up himself. _“Maybe she just doesn’t want to talk… you wish to be left alone a lot.”_

“I do not! I’m a social guy… but she still hasn’t texted back. Do you think she’s alright?”

_“Eddie, I do not care.”_

“But you said you liked her!”

 _“I say a lot of things.”_ Eddie turned and looked at the symbiote. With a roll of his eyes, he started to get up from bed. As his foot hit the ground, he suddenly was pulled up and put back in bed. _“Where do you think we are going?”_ Venom asked, crossing his arms in defiance. _“We do not need to go anywhere.”_

Since they’d come to a couple different arrangements, Venom didn’t usually take control of his movements the way he did in the beginning. It was hard enough trying to think his own thoughts without the symbiote butting in. “What’s wrong with wanting to talk to her? I got some real good stuff from that interview, and I’m excited to share it with her!”

_“You didn’t like when he talked about her.”_

“Well no! You wouldn’t like it either if a mass murderer was talking about your friend like that… It was creepy. I can’t be the only one who was creeped out. I dunno how Roxy did that the first time.”

_“That’s nice, but this is almost the third day we haven’t slept.”_

Eddie spoke quickly to dance around his feelings. He was worried, but Venom was right. He was unnaturally worried. Maybe it was because Annie never did anything like that, and Annie was the last woman he dealt with in any capacity. Eddie did lie, after all. How many friends did he have outside of Venom? How many people in general did he talk to outside of Venom? Maybe Annie, and Dan? Somehow Dan worked his way into the mix. That in itself was uncomfortable at first, but once he and Venom became more involved and achieved a “stronger symbiosis”, Eddie felt less strongly about her relationship.

He texted again. **Hey, you good? Transcribed the interview. Wanna see?**

Venom looked over and snatched his phone. He scrolled through all of the messages and was making random grunts. He glanced over at Eddie and read the texts aloud.  
_“He was really creepy. How did you do it?_  
_Did you want to meet up later and go over the interview?_  
_Guess you’re busy. Text me when free._  
_Roxanne are you good? Did I do something?_  
_Roxy?_  
_Hello?”_

Eddie got up from bed and put on the nearest sweatshirt he could find. All those texts were sent over the course of quite a few days. Before the radio silence, he and Roxy were texting pretty much daily. They sent memes occasionally and would text about what they happened to be watching, or doing, or listening to. He talked to Roxy a lot, and it was nice to have someone besides Venom to talk to. Not that Venom wasn’t great. Months with him, and Eddie was attached to him more than he ever expected.

“C’mon, I wanna go check on her.”

_“It isn’t our business.”_

“What’s so wrong with wanting to check on a friend?”

_“If she wanted to talk to you, she would.”_

“No… no she wouldn’t. If she doesn’t want me there, we can leave, but I want to at least go make sure she’s okay.”

With a sigh, Venom melded back into him and let Eddie finished “getting dressed”. Getting dressed included putting on his shoes and socks. The sweatshirt and the pajama pants were going to have to be enough. He fumbled around and grabbed his interview notes and wallet and keys before he left without his helmet. Ugh… if he was wrong, he was never going to hear the end of it. Maybe he should have texted Annie and asked if he was being irrational. No… stupid. It was almost three in the morning.

_It may not be stupid to worry for someone if you care for them._

“Well…” he started as he started his bike and sped off to her house. He’d dropped her off there before… and also, he lost a bet to her once over a baseball game so he had to order delivery to her house. It was a pretty solid bet. “…thank you for agreeing that I’m not crazy.”

_“That remains to be seen.”_


	8. Chapter 8

The pizza Roxanne had thrown in the oven was done. She had a video game loading. There was a can of Monster on glass coffee table in front of her. Nobody’d heard from Roxy from the last few days. The last person to see her in person had been one of her clients three days ago, and the last person to hear from her had been Eddie the night before last. She’d let her phone die and fell into a depressive episode, again. It was a common practice, and one that she’d learned to minimize the damage of. Before it died, she’d sent all her clients a message and updated her availability on her website. Then she left the outside world on the other side of her front door and… well, this was the aftermath of a couple days.  
  
She’d showered for the first time in a few days as a victory. She put the pizza in as another victory… Sleeping, however, had been elusive. Sometimes Roxy didn’t do depression very well. Depression was supposed to come with some perks like naps or no energy so she didn’t push herself to her limits anymore. Stupid depression… That’s why she stocked up on energy drinks and coffee. Caffeine was one of her two favorite drugs. The other one? Well, she had the joint in her mouth and had burned through three in the last hour to try to sway her one direction or the other. When it got severe, it was a matter of fucked up homeostasis: sad but stable; dead inside but neutral; exhausted but functional. This was a type of functional that Roxanne found solace in.  
  
Roxanne was medicated for her bipolar at one point in time, but the medications left her with too many side effects. She tried all of them, and none of them ever worked the way they were supposed to. One made her anxiety worse. One triggered her eating disorder. The last antidepressant she’d tried sent her into a manic episode… her tweets from that time were scary, but she’d saved them all anyway. She wanted to remember it somehow, even if it was only from the aftermath. After that, she decided it was better for her to deal with it on her own. Granted, she still went to therapy, but her medications were all… plant based now.  
  
“Alright, Roxy… distraction time.”  
  
If she hopped herself up on weed, energy drinks, and video games there was a chance she would be able to pass out from sheer exhaustion in the end. It’s happened before. All she had to do was distract herself long enough in order to survive. Most people were good at procrastination, but Roxanne turned it into a fucking sport. And she had a gold medal.  
  
Roxy was playing _Outlast_ as it was near Halloween, and for some reason scaring the shit out of herself seemed like a good form of self-care. Don’t ask her how… She was absorbed though. Pizza getting cold. It’d been a few days since she’d eaten, but the punk didn’t seem to notice. The most recent joint was left in her ash tray with the burn slowly going out. She didn’t eat or smoke any of it. She hadn’t actually moved from her couch except to scream and jump. One time she covered her eyes. Why the fuck did she decide on playing this game? There were so many other scary games that wouldn’t scar her for life like this one was probably doing… Idiot.  
  
Suddenly, she was found by the pair of twins she’d been running from. She was watching through a couple of her fingers when there was a rapid pounding on her door. “Fuck!” she yelled. Her ass hit the floor as she pulled herself out of the game with shaky hands. “Son of a…” She pushed herself up from the floor and grabbed the pastel pink Hello Kitty bat she kept behind the door. Long story short? Men don’t like being beaten with anything, but if it’s cute they get even more embarrassed.  
  
Two more bangs on the door. First of all, how did someone get in the building? Second of all, who the fuck was it at this hour? She leaned down and looked into the peephole. What the fuck. She undid her three locks and threw the door open, bat still in hand. “Eddie, what the fuck are you doing here? You scared the shit out of me!”  
  
Eddie looked just as startled as she was and started stuttering, “Well I uh… you weren’t… I just wante… I knew where… Okay so… Y’see…” And no actual words came out. The longer she stood there staring at him, the more impatient she became. Impatient? No, she was just fucking freezing… The hallway window was still broken from an unfortunate microwave incident, and she was still only in shorts and a tank top. “Roxy I jus---”  
  
“Come on in then!” she hissed as she set the bat down. “You’re letting all my warm air out. C’mon, c’mon… I don’t wanna turn on my oven again. I don’t have another pizza.” As if that was the only valid reason that would warrant turning her oven on. Her apartment had no heating or cooling system because it was old. It being cold never usually bothered her, but because she hadn’t been sleeping being cold was unpleasant. Roxy loved it cold when she could just burrito herself up in her bed and sleep the world away in the meantime.  
  
His mouth was still agape as he shuffled inside. His hands played with the hem of his hoodie as she locked back up. “I know I look foolish,” he hissed to himself. She stopped for a second and then continued as if she hadn’t heard anything. She had plenty of friends with delusions and knew that bringing her attention to them wasn’t always the best thing.  
  
He took a deep breath to center himself. “Roxanne, I was just worried…”  
  
“You didn’t need to be…” she pulled the edge of her tank top down to hide a fresh scar or two. Sometimes it got the best of her. Her body being covered in tattoo was more than an artistic choice. It was a mass coverup. It was armor. If her skin was covered (even if just in ink) it was enough of a barrier to protect it from her bad days. And sometimes her good days. “This just… happens sometimes.” She cleared her throat and walked passed him to take her spot back on the couch. She exited her game and put on Spotify for something in the background.  
  
Eddie stood awkwardly near the door and didn’t move until she waved him over. “You still didn’t respond to anything,” he mumbled as he shuffled over. “Did I say something? I thought we were fine.”  
  
She grabbed the now unlit joint and relit it. “You didn’t do anything. I told you… unreliable,” she said after an inhale. “I’m bipolar, Eddie. Sometimes this happens. I let all my clients know that I would be unavailable for a while and let my phone die. I saw some of your texts…”  
  
“Why didn’t you reply to them then?” he asked. He sat down on the arm of the couch opposite her like he was scared of breaking it.  
  
She chuckled and ran her hand back through her hair. “It’s… a lot of energy sometimes. It’s easier to shut the world out than it is to let it in. You’re part of the world, no matter how cool we are.” A heavy exhale and she was scratching absently at her skin again. There was a fidget cube somewhere in her apartment, but she lost it… She had a feeling it was her cat’s fault. That little shit loved taking her small things. All her bracelets were in the same drawer, all her utensils and wires and pens were tucked away. “You didn’t have to be worried…”  
  
Eddie barked a small laugh. She had to be kidding. He shook his head, sliding off the arm of the couch onto the seat itself. “Of course, I had to be worried. You’re my friend and you went from texting me every day to not texting me for three days! I think my being worried isn’t too irrational…” He sounded like he was trying to convince someone else, not her.  
  
“And I appreciate it… but I’m fine,” she said with a sigh. She hadn’t look at him once since he’d been let in. Roxy didn’t let people see her in this state ever. Let alone someone who hadn’t known her for years or slept with her in any capacity. It wasn’t anything personal. Roxy had exes who’d never seen her within weeks of a depressive episode. And had a couple ex-girlfriends who actually dumped her because they saw her.  
  
Roxy offered the joint to Eddie who shook his head, albeit hesitantly. Long as he didn’t complain or start preaching to her. He was in California now. He’d better get used to it. Eddie glanced at the cans of Monster and the now cold pizza that were both sitting untouched in front of her. “Are you… are you good?” he asked as he reached forward and poked at the pizza. She took the slice he touched and tossed it on his lap. “I don’t have a disease, y’know. You could have kept it!”  
  
“Yeah, but you came over here… so take the pizza, Brock,” she replied with a smirk. “I’m good… Now that you’re here and you see I’m in one piece, what exactly did you want?”  
  
“I, um… well… I didn’t really…” He stopped and glanced up at the ceiling. Roxy watched him carefully as she took a couple more hits off her joint. He was… listening to something, or someone. There was no judgment on her end. If there was, then she would be in the wrong field by a long shot. He smiled to himself and turned his attention back to her. “Do you think you’d want to go over the interview I did with Kasady?”  
  
That wasn’t the worst idea she’d ever heard. Without saying anything, she killed the rest of her joint and turned on some lo-fi beats. The cans of Monster were tossed from the coffee table to a small wooden table right against the window. “Why not?” she grinned. The pizza was going to be ignored. She glanced at it once and bit her lip as she got up from the couch. She had her notebook and a favorite pen on the table. Instead of actually talking about her feelings and being a real person, she opted to instead hide in some work.  
  
Instead of sitting in the chair like a normal person, Roxy faced the back towards the table and rested her chin on it as she waited for Eddie to get with the program. He still seemed uneasy. “So, did he miss me?” she asked with a little grin. With the cat and mouse nature of her first interview with Kasady, she fully expected to be a quick mention again. They had a small battle, and she felt she learned a lot. Whether Eddie had the tenacity to compete with Kasady on an intellectual level, she didn’t know. Eddie could at least badger him into answering questions, but as she flipped through his notes, she learned they had asked very different things.  
  
“I wouldn’t go back if I were you,” he said as he pulled up a chair. “He likes you.”  
  
She chuckled and turned her face towards him. “That’s the point, Eddie… If he likes me, he’ll talk to me. Even if it isn’t what I want to hear. I’m not afraid of what may happen.”  
  
“I think we should be… I think this is more dangerous than we thought.”  
  
Roxy scanned the part about Marine and winced a little. Typical… a woman spurned a man’s advances and she paid a price for it. This is why Roxy didn’t really date men. She’d dated one trans man in the past, but he’d learned too many bad behaviors from the other men in his life. She got out then… Thankfully, Eddie had asked about this and not her. She wouldn’t have been as nice. Hell, Roxy wouldn’t have even been able to maintain composure. Too many men had tried to do similar to her.  
  
“I wonder why he thinks he’s an observer…” she mumbled. Her finger tapped absently on that part of the interview. “He says that all the chaos would happen anyway, and he’s just watching it… but he’s not observing it. He’s causing it. Eddie, he’s not watching. He’s the conduit.”  
  
“But does he actually think he’s just an observer or is he saying that to further himself from his actions?” he asked as he watched her work. She was copying his notes much differently than when he copied hers. Instead of word for word she was making a web of phrases. Two whole sheets of paper with lines and circles and large question marks and one occasional doodle of him sitting in the cell. “Does he have any real grandiose motive?”  
  
She shook her head as she tossed her pen onto the table. Her left hand was covered in ink smudges from her frantic writing, and her papers would have to be read by spinning them around, but she got everything she wanted out of it. “I think… I think he’s bullshitting you. Probably me too, but he’s definitely bullshitting you.”  
  
“Why **definitely** me and not you?” he asked, growing more defensive.  
  
“You said it yourself… he knows something he wants you to know. And instead of telling you I think he’s throwing all this other shit your way. The overlap? He could believe it use it to justify his behavior in hindsight, but I think he does what he wants when he wants it. No more motive than that.”  
  
Eddie sighed and leaned back in his chair. He ran a hand over his face. He was more exhausted than she was despite having slept more in the last few days. Not that he would tell her that. That wasn’t really fair to her… “So why keep doing it?”  
  
“Shark’s gotta swim, Eddie. Or else he dies. Oh, I can’t wait to go back and talk to him again… Maybe I can bring his guard down again with what you did to raise it. Men like a sympathetic woman to listen to them… and I can pretend to be that.”  
  
She smirked a little and tried to hide a laugh. It was funny… the sympathy was more real than the woman part. Though she moved through the world as a woman, Roxy identified as a femme more than anything else. Gender was something strange… Femininity was her own, and she loved it. But being a woman and all the things that restrained that were not for her. It was one of the reasons that she preferred to go by Doctor rather than Miss. Every time someone said “ma’am” or “miss” is hurt her spirit in a way she could never quite articulate to the cis people around her. Or even other trans people around her. Roxy didn’t identify as trans. She was nonbinary, genderless, femme. She was trying to exist, and she was tired of people telling her what to do all the time. Of course, the joke would be lost on Eddie so she didn’t mention it.  
  
Besides, Eddie wasn’t laughing. His eyes were dark. Why was he being so serious about this? It didn’t matter as much as he thought it did. “Roxy, I’m serious. This is a little more than we signed up for. He’s determined to get out, and you’re in danger of being another Marine.”  
  
“I’m prepared for that, are you?”  
  
“No! And why are you?”  
  
Roxy snapped. Ever since she’d come to realize who she was and what she was and how she wanted to be, the last thing she needed was one of the safest people in the entire world to tell her what she should and shouldn’t be afraid of. She was constantly afraid all the time, but that meant she was never really scared of anything. Her worst-case scenarios have all happened to her. What did he know?  
  
“Eddie, you don’t fucking get it! I’m a femme walking around the world every goddamn day. I’ve been stalked. I’ve been hit. I’ve been shouted at. I’ve had things thrown at me. I’ve been assaulted, and I’ve been abused. Cletus Kasady doesn’t scare me because most men treat me the way he would… least he’s honest about it. Why don’t you ask Anne how she moves through the world next time you see her? If she says none of that has happened to her, then she doesn’t trust you as much as you thought she did.”  
  
Eddie slammed his hand on the table and stood up so he didn’t say anything too harsh. “Don’t you dare bring her into this. You don’t know anything about her. Why is my wanting you to be careful such a fucking problem?”  
  
Roxy laughed outright and held up the page about Marine again. This woman, no… girl, who was trying to live her life. “Because of this, Eddie! This isn’t unusual! Cletus Kasady pushed a girl in front of a bus because she wouldn’t go out with him!”  
  
“Yes, but he’s a psychopath!”  
  
Roxy threw the notebook down onto the table and stood up. She wasn’t afraid of him, or any man really. That’s what she told herself daily to compensate with the constant threat of the world. She’d come too far in her life to let it stop her. “Men do this shit to me all the time and they’re not psychopaths, Eddie! If you fuckin’ listened to women around you maybe you’d realize that. Or maybe they don’t think you care enough to bother telling you. I’ve had to go to the hospital because of a man who isn’t a psychopath. The man who broke my wrist when I was in high school was just a man! A man in his forties who got mad that a fifteen-year-old queer told him to fuck off… Why should I be scared of Cletus Kasady? What is he going to do that the world hasn’t already done?”  
  
Eddie opened his mouth to say something but nodded and fell silent. He inhaled deep through his nose and turned to stare at the screen of the TV. She had nothing else to say, not really. Roxy was tired of arguing this same point over and over again with men who came into her life. It was unfair to Eddie for her to have pinned him higher than the others, but he looked like he had potential. Maybe he still did. The fact he wasn’t still arguing with her was better than most. It looked like he was going to, but maybe something was telling him to listen.  
  
She opened the window and sighed as cool air immediately flew in. Yelling at him did actually make her tired if nothing else. Maybe she’d actually get some sleep tonight… even if it was while she was angry. Sometimes Roxy fell asleep to metal music, so this would be no different. She scooted over and sat on the ledge with her legs sticking outside. Why hadn’t she just told him to leave?  
  
“Yeah, you’re right,” she heard from behind her. Eddie was talking to himself again. “Alright, alright,” he hissed. “I’ll go over. Calm down.” She smiled despite herself as she heard him pad over to her. He opened up the adjacent window and sat on it much like she was. “Hey… uhm… I’m sorry. The world is shitty all over, but it’s less shitty for me than it is for you. And I have no right to tell you what to do. I just don’t want anything bad to happen with this. This is a shot of redemption for me, and I was selfish. This is your thing, and you brought me in, and I have to remember that. You’re the lead on this, and I’m following you.” He glanced over at her and saw she was looking at the ground. How often did she do that? “Are we okay? Even though I’m an asshole?”  
  
Roxy snapped out of her reverie and chuckled. Her legs were absently kicking like a little girl on a chair who couldn’t touch the floor. She wanted to touch the floor. “Yeah… yeah, we’re okay… and you’re not really an asshole, Eddie. You’re just a man.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all!! Sorry I've been gone! I have no actual promises for when I'll be back consistently, but I haven't forgotten this place or this fic. Due to a major family emergency and now I have to write another poetry manuscript in 3 weeks (a tall order), my time has been spread super thin. I promise I won't go ghost for months at a time though.

For Rosemarie <3

To take her out for a drink. That’s what he offered her to make up for the fact he’d been a dick. Venom offered something better like to go kill one of her enemies, but he overrode that with something more polite. Getting drinks was becoming a habit of theirs. They usually only went out for an hour or two before one of them whined about being too old for this shit. It was usually Roxy, which Eddie found funny considering she was in a band and would often be out until four in the morning. All they wanted to do was learn more about each other since they were working so close now. All they managed to learn so far was that they were drawn to the same types of movies (anything with a psychological element or something to do with great triumphs). Roxy was determined to get Eddie to watch a musical one day. Eddie determined to get her to watch something silly she could turn her brain off to. What he learned most over the last month was that she thought way too damn much. 

Tonight, they were meeting up in a little hole in the wall soju restaurant and bar. They tried to go to different places every time… Well, Roxy made him go to different places instead of his same sad bar that he frequented. She was pushing him passed his limits a little at a time. Even Annie was noticing the difference. Hungry. 

“I know, bud. We’re gonna get food in here too,” he said as he walked into the bar. Roxy had apparently gotten there first and had ordered a pitcher of soju and chicken wings. And she was eating those wings… with chopsticks? Oh Jesus. She was way better than him at everything, wasn’t she?

Yes, she is, Venom agreed in his head. Great. As per usual his symbiote was on her side. 

He pulled up next to her with a grin on his face. “You’re not seriously eating with chopsticks right now?” he asked as he took a seat. “Chicken wings… you eat those with your hands.” He picked one up and started eating it aggressively just to prove a point to her. He realized too late that it was covered in a sauce and she hadn’t gotten napkins yet. And now his hands were sticky and he couldn’t very well grab his shot glass like that now could he. Stupid. 

Instead of poking at him, she grinned and brandished her half-eaten chicken wing in his face. “Don’t get jealous now, Eddie.” She took her last bite of that wing and grabbed some napkins for him. She tossed them at his face. 

Alright… she made it look so easy. Maybe he could do it too. He cleaned himself up before trying his own attempts. The same chicken wing was picked up and dropped a handful of times. Roxy took a shot every time he’d dropped it, something Venom noticed before he did. How did she make this look simple? He could use them for Chinese food, but chicken wings? Fuck that. His victory came when he got fed up and stabbed the wing with a singular stick. “So, can I eat now?”

Roxy rolled her eyes. She still smiled at him though. Without taking her eyes off him, she stole the wing off his singular chopstick and held it victoriously in the air. “Nope!” she laughed as she held the wing out away from him. He never took the time to learn the art of chopstick use. He had to use kid chopsticks and on his own would use a fork. Now it seemed it was another life skill he should have picked up… and it would be added to the list of things he learned to do to impress (or keep up with) a pretty girl. 

The dinner went over well with them laughing for most of it. The normal silence that would normally be filled by eating was replaced with him throwing the occasional fake tantrum over the fact he couldn’t eat properly. He was still too stubborn to ask for a fork. Not when Roxy would keep laughing at him. And every time Roxy laughed at him, he would get embarrassed and then Venom would laugh at him.

Perhaps she is the more suitable host after all, the symbiote teased. 

“Alright, to save myself from further embarrassment I’m going to go to the bathroom,” he said as he stood up. “And you, you’re supposed to lay off a little, huh? I can’t have two conversations at once.” Eddie hissed quietly to himself on the way to the bathroom. Venom liked teasing him just as much as Roxy did, and he couldn’t take it from both sides when there was also the entire restaurant of noise to contend with. Maybe he should look into noise cancelling earbuds or something…

**~-~-~-~**

Within the first few minutes of Eddie being gone, Roxy felt a hand squeeze her shoulder. She grimaced and shook it off. The hand returned. “Hey, hands off, assho---” Her voice went into hiding the moment she saw the woman who was touching her. The skin on her shoulder wanted to crawl off onto the floor. 

Her ex-girlfriend Riannon was standing there with a smug smile that made Roxanne want to vomit. The woman was a few inches shorter than her but had twenty pounds on her. She had long curly brown hair and hazel eyes. There was nothing stunning about her other than her smile. The smile was fake. And Roxanne hated it. “What? No love for me anymore, Roxanne?”

“Didn’t know you were allowed to leave Hell, Riannon,” Roxanne replied coolly. She put her hand down on Eddie’s seat as the other tried to take it. “Someone’s there.”

“You got a new girlfriend or something?” she asked, pushing Roxy’s hand off the seat and taking it. “We have some catching up to do…”

“Not really. I’ve heard all about what you’ve been up to these days,” she said. “Nothing more to say to you.”

Riannon leaned in and sneered. “Like hell you don’t.”

**~-~-~-~**

Roxy was about to get up and leave when Eddie suddenly returned. He looked a little out of breath like he’d jogged there… he had. Without much hesitation, Eddie looped an arm around Roxy’s shoulders as if it belonged there. He was hoping she could figure it out enough to run with it. And maybe not be mad at him. “You ready to leave, babe?” he asked, planting a kiss to her cheek. Maybe that was a step too far, but he wanted it to look convincing. 

Apparently, it was convincing because the strange woman let out a bark of a laugh. “Since when the fuck do you date men, Roxanne? Traitor you are,” she asked Roxy with a less than gentle shove.  
Eddie raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth to say something when Venom chimed in with, Don’t. Just leave. Look at her. She doesn’t want a scene. As much as he wanted to come up with some snarky remark, Eddie had to agree with his (literal) other half. He pulled Roxy away from the bar with a wave at the bartender. 

“C’mon, let’s go,” he mumbled. She didn’t even glance in his direction. “We’re good, yeah? Let’s go.” He didn’t give her a chance to say anything and simply lead her out. They walked around the corner and down the block until they came across an abandoned children’s park they could sit at. And they did. 

There were faded twin green slides that were way too small for them. They sat there anyway. Roxy was splayed across with one leg over the side (it was common knowledge that gays couldn’t sit properly in or on anything) while Eddie found himself wedged in. They could have gone into a different bar where it wasn’t cold. Where was the fun in that? Roxy stayed silent the entire trip, fumbling through her pockets to find the joint she’d brought with her. She didn’t speak until Eddie offered her a lighter. He started carrying it around because of her. “I could have handled myself, y’know,” she said with a soft smile. “Everything was totally under control.”

Deciding to play it cool and not pry into what wasn’t his business, Eddie chuckled. “Oh of course it was. It was under control because I came back.” He shook his head at the offer to smoke with her. That had never been his vice, and ever since he and Venom met, the last thing he wanted to do was introduce a new drug into his body in an uncontrolled environment. “You’re gonna have to teach me to use chopsticks properly sometime. I want to steal your food too. That’s not fair.”

She laughed. “Oh, c’mon, Eddie. You’re really going to take food out of my mouth? I’m a model minority you’re supposed to treat me as an exception!” Messing with him was hilarious on every account. He got so flustered trying to get it right. After a few teachable moments (and a lot of learning with Venom taking over his body), Eddie was starting to be more cognizant of the space he took up.

“I—what I wouldn----” he was interrupted by Roxy laughing at his distress. “Swear to god, woman, you’ll be the death of me.” He laid his head back against the slide and looked up through the fog. He could never see much through it. The natives to the city said they could figure it out no matter how thick the fog was. Then he realized what he’d said as she blew smoke. It mixed with the dog and he broke the silence again. “Sorry I said woman… I know you’re not--- I mean gender is---- Sorry, I’ll work on it.”

A hand smacked him in the face. His lighter returned albeit tossed onto his nose. “I get it, Brock. I know intention when I hear it… Besides,” she rolled over onto her belly and looked at him. “it’ll be a great way to go.”


End file.
